In recent years, the theory of chemical balance (the idea that diseases like depression are associated with a chemical imbalance in the brain) has been actively criticized, calling for attention to the social causes of disorders. Living in big cities, a culture of overwork, loneliness - and gender can all contribute to the development of depression or anxiety. T&P examines how women's socialization affects the development of psychological problems, why girls are less likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and whether it is possible to "heal nerves" by defeating inequality.
Diagnostics
The feminist view of mental disorders is relevant, at least because men and women are diagnosed differently for the same characteristics and disorders. For example, estimates of the gender gap in diagnosing autism spectrum disorders (ASD) range from 2: 1 to 16: 1. It has long been attributed to the "extreme male brain" theory, according to which autism is associated with elevated testosterone levels (and therefore more common in men). But recent research has criticized the biological explanation for this difference.
They draw attention to the fact that researchers of ASD often exclude girls from the sample, expecting in advance that the number of cases of ASD among them will be small compared to the number of such cases among boys. As a result, our knowledge of autism is based on data on boys and men, says Francesca Happé, professor of cognitive neurology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurology at King's College London. In girls and women, the disorder is less commonly diagnosed because it can manifest itself differently, studies show.
Scientists also believe that girls' ASDs are more likely to go unnoticed due to their perception of gender roles. For example, boys are more likely to be expected to prefer group games, so a loner will immediately stand out from the rest. A girl busy with her own business will raise fewer questions. Especially if her special interests are "typical" for peers (ponies or dolls). (It should be noted that the study is about children with high functioning autism - this is how the degree of the disorder is determined in which a person's IQ exceeds 70 points.)
There are also opposite examples: for example, a woman is more likely to be diagnosed with depression than a man, even with exactly the same symptoms. At the same time, there is almost no gender gap in the diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
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Know your place
Faced with everyday sexism, you can often hear vocabulary borrowed from psychiatry. "Hysterics" and "nymphomaniacs" are firmly entrenched in the vocabulary and are most often called upon not so much to offend as to put in place. The pathologization of women's emotions has a long history. In the 19th century, in psychiatric hospitals in the USA and Great Britain, the overwhelming majority of patients were women, and the list of reasons for hospitalization includes absence of menstruation, masturbation, "excessive" reading, abortion, religious fantasies, unacceptable views of religion.
Often, women ended up in psychiatric hospitals solely at the behest of their husbands. This happened to the American Elizabeth Packard (1816-1897). A schoolteacher and the wife of a Calvinist pastor ended up in the hospital after arguing with her husband about religion. Illinois law at the time stipulated that a spouse did not need proof and a public hearing to place a wife in a mental institution. Three years later, Elizabeth retired from the hospital, secured her sanity in court, and dedicated her life to protecting women who faced the same challenges.
By the end of the 19th century, two-thirds of opiate addicts were women. They also became the main victims of barbiturates, which have been prescribed for decades as a remedy for anxiety. "Mom's little helper" diazepam was also prescribed twice as often for women.
At the same time, today the main patients of psychiatric hospitals are men, they also commit suicide much more often. Experts attribute this to a reluctance to seek psychiatric help in a timely manner due to common ideas about how a man should cope with emotional problems.
Ophelia. Alexander Cabanel. 1883.
From envy to phallus to feminist psychotherapy
The twentieth century was marked by the development and widespread popularity of psychoanalysis, which, although it began a serious conversation about sex, at the same time offered many misogynistic ideas: penis envy, an explanation of rape by masochism inherent in women, etc. does not exist . While this statement does not mean the literal absence of a woman, it nevertheless implies that only the phallus (man) exists symbolically, while the woman is simply another man, an eternal lack.
The neo-Freudian Karen Horney criticized some of Freud's theses. For example, she argued that penis envy does not exist, there is only male envy of the uterus as an organ capable of producing life. It is the desire to compensate for this shortage that pushes men to participate in production, culture, and politics.
In 1983, the text of the pioneer of feminist psychotherapy Miriam Greenspan "A New Approach to Women and Therapy" was published. In it, Greenspan exposes traditional psychotherapeutic practices as oppressive, toxic, and unfriendly to women and offers an alternative - feminist psychology and psychotherapy. An important achievement of this approach has been the attention to the systemic discrimination that every woman faces during her life. The implication is that many of the problems women come into therapy with are not the result of mental illness, but gender inequality.
Greenspan notes that
Sometimes, postpartum depression may not be due to a chemical imbalance in the brain, but to a banal lack of care for the newborn. Eating Disorders - with media-driven beauty standards that primarily affect women. Depression - with poverty and "second shift" (unpaid domestic work). High rates of PTSD are common among women with experience of sexual abuse.
Instead of individualizing and pathologizing our problems, we recognize them as part of a patriarchal system,”writes Louise Russell in her article Feminism Over Psychotherapy: The Story of a Woman.
The cult of rationality and hysteria as a struggle
In the early twentieth century, one of the main components of the struggle for women's rights was an appeal to rationality: women are as rational as men, which means they deserve the same set of rights. “Our demands are reasonable, we are reasonable, we just demand equality, listen to us,” the suffragettes repeated. The justifying motive that was characteristic of feminism then and now (albeit to a lesser extent) is still strong. An illustrative excerpt from a speech by the suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst on February 14, 1913: "I want you to see [our protest] not as isolated actions of hysterical women, but as a well-thought-out plan with definite intentions and goals." Associations with "hysterical women" are something that suffragettes have diligently tried to avoid.
Unsurprisingly, newspaper headlines and anti-feudal campaign posters were filled with comparisons of struggling women with emotionally unstable hospital patients. Here is the headline of The Tampa Daily Times from 1912: "Excitable women join the [suffrage] movement." This is followed by the text: "Campaigning for the right to vote for women by militant suffragists has literally turned into an epidemic of hysteria." The accusations of insanity on feminists are common now: just go to YouTube to see dozens of videos entitled "Crazy feminists" or "Feminist goes crazy."
Today, many women do not fall into the "excuse" trap when it comes to attacks on their appearance and marital status. However, accusations of “hysteria” are still met with rebuff, and speech about re-branding a concept (the appropriation by a discriminated group of a word that is used to stigmatize it.) Rarely comes up. In the West, Serena Williams has taken a certain step for this. In Nike's Dream Crazier ad about women in sports, she came up with the slogan: “They call you crazy? Let it go. Show them what this nutcase is capable of."
However, in academic texts, the conversation about the advertising of "hysteria" has been going on for a long time. In 2002, Juliet Mitchell's Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria was released. When asked what inspired her to write the book, she replied: “Just when I was finishing work on Psychoanalysis and Feminism, an interest in hysterical women as protofeminists was developing. Dora's case from Freud's practice was filmed and adapted for theater production and analyzed many times. The interest was enormous."
As Esther Hutfless writes in Dora, Hysteria and Gender: “The hysteric was and still remains the heroine of women's protest. She resists sexual norms, finds a way to speak out when patriarchy shuts her down, protects female sexuality from suppression and destruction. Hysteria represents a woman in all her strength, makes her an element of anxiety."
Much has changed since the days of the suffragists. Rationality has been repeatedly criticized both by representatives of the Frankfurt School and by feminist thinkers. The "feminine" is beginning to be perceived as something that should be recognized and noted for uniqueness, and not for conformity to the "masculine" ideals of rationality. If earlier women were encouraged to behave like a dominant group (to be fearless, firm, confident in their actions, assertive), today there are articles like “Women don't need to apologize less - men need to apologize more”, where the idea that “female »Behavior can become a new benchmark.
Katerina Denisova